POLLEN

In the relatively invisible world of commercial honey producers, David Moreland is a newcomer and a rarity — a Californian almond grower who started his own apiary to pollinate his crops, as well as a research company to study colony collapse disorder.

Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring says a new North Dakota Pollinator Plan has been developed to help farmers, ranchers, landowners and beekeepers better protect honeybees while enabling cultivation practices necessary for modern agriculture.

Most farmers in southeastern Minnesota are nearly finished harvesting corn, but Bill Beckman of rural Zumbrota has been done for months. As an alternative to yellow corn, he’s been developing an 85-day white corn hybrid using classic Mendelian genetics.